The standoff over the Strait of Hormuz has escalated again as Iran reverses its reopening of the crucial waterway and fires on ships attempting to pass. Saturday's developments come after the United States said it would continue its blockade of Iranian ports. The strait's closure threatens to deepen the global energy crisis. Meanwhile, Pakistani mediators are working to organize new negotiations between the countries. Iran says it has received new proposals from the United States. But Iran's deputy foreign minister tells the AP that Tehran isn't ready for new face-to-face talks because the Americans “have not abandoned their maximalist position.”

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said Thursday that while Cuba does not want military aggression from the United States, his co…

Human Rights Watch, in a detailed new report, says Chinese authorities are increasing pressure on underground Catholic communities to join the state-controlled official church while tightening surveillance and travel restrictions on all of China’s estimated 12 million Catholics. The report says the heightened pressure is part of a decade-old campaign to ensure that religious denominations and independent churches are loyal to the officially atheist Communist Party. China’s Catholics have been divided between an official, state-controlled church that didn’t recognize papal authority and an underground church that remained loyal to Rome through decades of persecution.